The Mbac and the Harappan Script

Abstract

AbstractThe article deals with interpretation of inscriptions consisting of Indus characters recovered outside the boundaries of the Indus Valley, primarily in Arabian Gulf regions and in Southern Mesopotamia. The author makes a supposition that inscriptions on foreign (non-Harappan) seals and objects with non-Harappan sign sequences and/or inclusion of non-Harappan signs could belong not to the so-called "new Sumerians," acculturated and integrated Meluhhans who lived in the Gulf region, but to the Murghabo-Bactrians who had come to the Arabian Gulf and Southern Mesopotamia. The latter could have acquired some knowledge of the Harappan script and language at their home in Central Asia.